Conventional excavating machines typically are provided with a handle or dipper stick pivotally connected to a boom which may be lifted and lowered, means for pivotally connecting an implement to the free end of the dipper stick, a pair of support links pivotally connected to the dipper stick and having a connecting pin provided on the free ends thereof, a pair of actuating links pivotally connected at one pair of ends to the connecting pin provided on the support links and connectable at the other set of ends thereof to an implement, and a fluid actuated cylinder assembly pivotally connected at one end thereof to the underside of the dipper stick and connected at the other end thereof to the connecting pin of the support links, which may be extended and retracted in the conventional manner to pivot or curl and uncurl an implement pivotally connected at one point to the dipper stick and pivotally connected at another point to the actuating links.
In the use of such assemblies, it often is desirable to mount different implements to perform different work functions. To facilitate the use of such different implements, various assemblies have been developed for detachably coupling different implements to the dipper sticks of such machines. An example of one of such assemblies for detachably coupling a number of different implements to the dipper stick of a machine is illustrated and described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/880,303, filed on Jun. 13, 2001. In such coupling assembly, there is provided a first connecting pin pivotally mounted on the free end of the dipper stick and connectable to a pair of mounting brackets on an implement, a second connecting pin mounted in the free ends of the actuating links and connectable to the mounting brackets of the implement, a pair of spacer links connected at one set of ends to one of such connecting pins and engageable at the other set of ends thereof to the other connecting pin to form a four bar linkage and means for detachably securing the free ends of the spacer links to such other connecting pin. In a comparable arrangement of such a coupling assembly, in lieu of a rigid spacer link, there is provided a pair of link segments pivotally connected at one set of ends thereof, rigidly connected at the other ends thereof to the connecting pins mounted in the dipper stick and actuating links, which are adapted to pivot together to a collapsed, inoperative condition and pivot apart to an extended, operative position, and means for detachably securing such link segments in their extended, operative conditions.
Although the coupling assemblies as described have been highly effective in detachably connecting various implements to the dipper sticks of such machines, it has been found that the sizes, dimensions and configurations of dipper sticks, the connecting pins of such dipper sticks and mounting brackets of implements vary which thus precludes the use of a single, standard configuration of such a coupling assembly. It thus has been found to be desirable and correspondingly the principal object of this invention to provide an assembly for adapting such coupler assemblies for use with dipper sticks, connecting pins and implement mounting brackets of different sizes, dimensions and configurations.